Writing Update

Now have 21 places/scene locations identified. Still need to “flesh out” most of them. Also created a light timeline. I was getting confused about when certain things occurred. I have a very short window for the timing of the novel – a little over six weeks. So far it’s taken me at least a year to get the novel to where it is now. But look at some movies; some of them show a year in just under two hours. And you know it took more than a year from idea to finished product. You have to leave out a lot of the boring stuff, like trudging up and down hillsides but you also want to show that they did do the trudging so there are little scenes along the way and hints of how long it’s been.

I also have to deal (or not) with the little things that happen on a daily basis – like cooking meals – where does the food come from if your character is leading a donkey up into the mountains? Can she pack enough food? Will she have to hunt or trap and then prepare the meat? How much time does that take? What about making fires to cook with? What about shelter for her and her donkey? There are no inns in a sparsely traveled mountain range where dragons have their caves. What about getting cleaned up? I know I wouldn’t really like to go six weeks without a bath, would you? Yet our not-to-distant ancestors (200 years isn’t long really) went months without a bath. Basically, I think I’m going to ignore the bath (and bathroom) subject. Meals? I’m not real sure how I’ll treat that. She’ll take some dried supplies, like jerky and amaranth but other stuff she’ll have to find along the way to supplement those. How much jerky would one have to take to last six weeks? What grows in the mountains from late winter to the vernal equinox? (That’s why I have several books on Wilderness survival and am researching as I plot and plan.)

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About frncnseal585

Daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, retired from gainful employment. We have 2 cats and 2 dogs. I love to travel (we cruise, go to Pagosa Springs and take one other trip every year) I like to digitally scrap book (all that traveling), make greeting cards (all occasion & Christmas), write fantasy fiction (got two, maybe three books in the works right now), and photography. I generally participate in most of Kam of Campfire Chic and Amy of Lemon and Raspberry's 30 Days of Lists challenges and also in Lain Ehman's LayOut a Day (LOAD) challenges.